First Impressions - Bats!
Holy fucking shit... this episode was... I've got a few questions... Meghan McCarthy: "can you spread the word that BATS! was written by Merriwether Williams? I just saw that credits were wrong in the episode" Are you sure that M. A. Larson didn't write this episode with all of those continuity nods? When did Friendship is Magic become Courage the Cowardly Dog? Why does this episode have more of a connection to Castlevania than Castle Mane-ia? Who's idea was it to take my suggestion to have Fluttershy defend animals from ponies? Most importantly, when did Merriweather Williams become fucking amazing? Okay, I should probably delve into more detail here and go into things that I liked... actually there is very little that I didn't like. If I'd have to pick it's that the bats themselves were a little too creepy and yeah, the title beat out Magic Duel as the worst title in the series. Seriously, who is coming up with all of these titles? But that doesn't effect my overall enjoyment of the episode, it just makes it harder for me to find information about the episode itself. So let's go into what I liked the episode. First of all the conflict starts almost immediately. The intro is less than a minute long and by that time we know what the main conflict is. I liked the continuity nods - Pinkie singing something along the lines of Winter Wrap-Up, Dash talking about cider. Actually if that's another thing I don't like is that she's a little too into the cider, although I guess it's not too much of a complaint because it doesn't get in the way of any of her other motivations and it isn't used to torture her. Applejack finally learns a lesson that isn't "Don't be stubborn." In fact, they put two morals for the price of one in this episode Speaking of that, it brings us to Fluttershy. Yup, she's defending animals from ponies and learns to stand by her morals of this. Her moral was that she shouldn't do something if it felt morally wrong (or something along those lines), which is incredibly unique for a Fluttershy episode. I can't think of another Fluttershy episode where that moral would have even come up, with the possible exception of Putting Your Hoof Down. And the episode manages to turn her into the antagonist without turning her into a monster... wait. Um... they do it correctly this time. It's a twist that actually works. It's explained fairly well (in a creative way), and it doesn't come out of nowhere. It's hinted at, and then you start wondering how that makes any sense. Until the episode itself shows you how it makes sense. Speaking of endings - Pony of Shadows in Castle Mane-ia, comic book disappearing in Power Ponies, and now Fluttershy has a fang. I'm confused by this. Are we building up to something, or is this some strange variant on the running gag? Now the other ponies are just there for the most part, but unlike Castle Mane-ia, they've actually got a reason to be there - helping Applejack fix up her farm. That brings us to Pinkie Pie! Every gag with her had me laughing. Every single one. Especially her digging away from what she thinks is Fluttershy being dangerous, and that ending conversation where Fluttershy was wondering if she was eating ponies. Wait, I thought this was a kid's show. Pinkie is an adult and isn't an idiot, although there's one moment where Applejack thinks that she's idiot. Then again, after the coloring book thing I can't blame her. Oh yeah there's a song - an Applejack/Fluttershy duet. Merriweather, do you really use like a random number generator to figure out what characters you put together? Who knew that they've play off of each other so well, and this song perfectly displays why: www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuRatF… The song just makes the episode better. Honestly, it's Merriweather's best so far, and it has the possibility of being my favorite of season 4 so far. With Merriweather Williams writing Fluttershy, and partially an Applejack episode. Holy shit Merriweather, you did it. Keep this up! But most importantly, don't collaborate. When you're doing your own work you keep getting better and better, although I hope that you do get credit for this within the fandom. What was up with that miscreditting? That seems a very odd thing to miss. Category:Miscellaneous